Dancer's Lament/Prelude
Seti Plains Dorin Rav Dorin Rav is on the Seti Plains, lying in wait for an unknown person sneaking around the area. He is surprised that the person has eluded him, as he recalls all assassin's guilds he previously found on Quon Tali were simple collections of thugs, their money now his. He wants to be the one who first claims the spoils from a cave which has newly opened in a small rocky gorge nearby. After spending several hours of the night crouching silently, he sees his quarry has somehow gotten ahead of him. He quickly follows them down the gorge and the small cave. Passing down the exposed tunnel and through a rune covered stone door, he finds himself in a tomblike underground structure. A large and long haired figure sits in front of a central table, and a nacht, appearing almost mummified, sits on the slab. The two are examining large wooden tiles. When the figure speaks, he points out that Dorin's quarry is just to the left of him. The man was behind him all along, concealing himself with magic. The mage heads forth to the table and converses with the figure, which he identifies as a Jaghut. He correctly guesses that the Jaghut is (and for a long time has been) reading a particularly difficult casting of the Deck of Dragons. Dorin recalls having a reading when he was younger, and that the reader had screamed loudly enough to wake his whole village. The Jaghut tells them that they may not leave the structure now that they know it exists, and catches Dorin's expression. He tells Dorin that he would not be able to force his way out, tapping the table to reveal a complex pattern of swirling silver-filled inlays forming the shape of a man surrounded by runes and wards. The mage begins to explore the structure, knocking items from shelves and annoying the Jaghut. Dorin heads back up the tunnel he descended from, but finds the gap between the door and the tunnel's walls far too thin to climb through. He returns to the chambers and speaks briefly with the mage, who hands him a small wooden box. After speaking again with the Jaghut, the nacht's mocks the mage and runs off, the mage pursuing with his walking stick at the ready. In the dark a fight between the nacht and the mage begins, and highly irritated at the continuous distractions, the Jaghut flings all to the walls with a burst of magical power. Dorin hears a rattling death cough from the other side of the room, where the mage had been, and the Jaghut goes to investigate. The Jaghut is amused and Dorin jealous when he finds no one. Dorin grabs the nacht, believing it to be a familiar of the Jaghut, and threatens to kill it if the Jaghut does not release him. The Jaghut happily declares that if he takes the nacht with him, he may leave. The mage appears from the shadows next to Dorin and accepts, the nacht leaping from Dorin to the mage with the wooden box in its hands. The Jaghut is very surprised by the way the mage can move. The mage and Dorin depart through the cave with the nacht, the door now wide enough to pass through again. Once on the surface of the plains the mage identifies himself as Wu. Dorin tries to kill him as he disappears into shadows with the box and nacht, but the knives do not connect. Dorin heads off towards Li Heng in pursuit, angered by the theft of his share of the box's value. Gothos The Jaghut seals the door behind them with a wave of his hands, resuming his study of the Deck. A voice from the darkness chides him for sending two more souls on his hopeless fools' errand, one that has led to the deaths of many others. The Jaghut retrieves the speaker, an Azathanai in the form of a Battered full helm, from the distant reaches of the chamber and speaks with it. It tells him that he gives up too easily and reveals the Jaghut to be Gothos. In response to Gothos' derision, it woefully says that the issue for the Azathanai is that giving up is something they themselves cannot do. 00